The Amsterdam-based collective Wanderwelle consists of Alexander Bartels (b. 1993) and Phil van Dulm (b. 1993). Their practice spans experimental music, live performance, film, video installation, photography, and graphic work. Rooted in shared interests and academic backgrounds in history, art history, and medicine, their work is driven by a strong conceptual foundation infused with uncanny elements. Enduring, insidious, and estranging undercurrents are consistently present, seeping into their work and those who encounter it. Sometimes these sub-layers coexist harmoniously; sometimes they chafe in unpleasant ways.
Time does not run linearly in Wanderwelle’s work. For their album trilogy—currently being released by the prestigious US-based label Important Records (IMPREC)—they interweave the climate crisis and its impact on coastal regions with ancient sailors’ superstitions and medieval folklore. Although the past is a distant land, Wanderwelle traces its resonances within the present, seeking the space between echoing timelines that harbour both reason and superstition.
These ideas also come to fruition when Wanderwelle works with archival material, as this form of media can engage with contemporary issues by referencing and building upon past perspectives and insights. Their experimental collage film The Four Nightmares, assembled from footage unearthed in the EYE Filmmuseum archive, was selected for the Gouden Kalf Competition (2023) and the Debut Competition (2023) at the Netherlands Film Festival.
Wanderwelle’s music occupies the twilight zone of ominous ambient and experimental sound, performed with an extensive array of electronic, acoustic, and self-made instruments. They quickly gained recognition for their vinyl releases and live performances at museums, galleries, festivals, clubs, and venues such as Royal Theatre Carré, Cafe OTO, Tresor, and Paradiso. Wanderwelle also composes and performs live scores for silent films. Their work has received international coverage in publications including The Wire, Gonzo (circus), and Rockerilla.
Around the same time as their first album for IMPREC, Wanderwelle worked on the graphic novel De duizendpoot (The Centipede), marking their debut as scriptwriters..
In October 2022, they performed at Royal Theatre Carré as part of Within Without II, an interdisciplinary work combining large-scale light installations, dancers from the Dutch National Ballet, and Wanderwelle’s music as its sonic backbone.
Their first exhibition, Phantasmopolis (2024), opened at the Amsterdam City Archives and featured haunting photomontages and a video installation exploring the city’s hidden and spectral layers.
The following year, Wanderwelle premiered their folk short film The Tale of Cradlejack at the EYE Filmmuseum and entered into a collaboration with renowned art photographer Roger Ballen, expanding their visual language through his photographic world. Wanderwelle and Ballen’s short film Inferno premiered at the Gallerie d’Italia in Turin.
They are currently working on new music, photographic works, and their first feature-length experimental documentary, Misery Blvd., which will be narrated by Canadian auteur filmmaker Guy Maddin.